Men and Feminism

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:50:00 +0000

First off, when you see the cover of Men and Feminism you'll notice that this book is part of the Seal Press Studies series. But do not freak out! While this book can easily be in a Gender & Women's Studies course syllabus, I also believe this is an excellent book for anyone to pick up in order to know more about how men have fit into the feminist movement.

What's that? You don't think that men have been a part of the feminist movement? Oh how mistaken you are! But it's not your fault you believe that: first of all, our history classes don't teach women's history, and when we take it upon ourselves we focus on the accomplishments of kick ass women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Dolores Huerta. In fact, men have been supportive of the movement all along, not as many as we would want, but that's where Shira Tarrant really gets into the question of men and feminism.

Tarrant goes through the history of the (mostly American) women's movement and reveals the men behind the amazing women. She also reveals some of their contradictions, including how their public voice did not match their private lives and how men used motherhood as a way to push for women's rights.

I felt the gem of this book was how Tarrant wrestled with trans and gay issues within the context of feminism and masculinity. She showed us how the fear of being labeled a sissy keeps even the most feminist of men silent thus complacent in continuing our sexist and homophobic society. She walks us through how ignoring or being ignorant of trans-issues keeps us focused on the false binary of boy-girl, masculine-feminine, and thus, keeps all of us in gendered boxes.

As close friends know, I believe my feminism can connect with almost any issue, and Tarrant does a brilliant job at showing us how we must pay attention to the plight of boys and men under patriarchy in order to bring out a more just world. I wish I'd had this book a few years ago when I was trying to create a men's issues committee for a feminist organization I use to work with. I was shot down loudly and quickly.

Tarrant has a great chapter on male privilege. It's an easy read in terms of vocabulary, although it might be hard to totally grasp. Essentially, Tarrant says, "Great, you're a great guy. You might love a feminist woman, never hit her and even support her work. But unless you are taking progressive steps to call out others on their sexism there's still work to be done." It's not finger-pointing or male-bashing at all. Rather, it's a straightforward call to action for all the "I'm not a feminist, but..." men in our lives who really need to walk all that talk.

This would be an excellent present for a feminist-dad-in-training. It's 150 pages of the feminist manliness. If you're a nerd like me, it's great summer reading too.

Written by: Veronica I. Arreola, May 26th 2009

Black Male Outsider: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:16:00 +0000

By Gary L. Lemons

SUNY Press

In this compelling, readable volume that is part memoir, part classroom case study Dr. Gary L. Lemons employs the theme of moving from silence to voice, and what this means for anti-racist, feminist pedagogy. He eloquently writes about his experiences teaching and learning in majority white classrooms as a pro-feminist, African American man.

Filled with the citations from work that has inspired and supported his pedagogy—such as bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Marlon Riggs, and Patricia Hill Collins, as well as quotes from the many critical autobiographical writings Lemons assigned to his students—Black Male Outsider is a powerful memoir and teaching tool. He offers educators at all levels effective strategies they can adapt to their own classrooms to teach and learn across difference and is one of the most compelling books on this subject to come out in some time.

For thirteen years Lemons was a professor at a small, progressive, liberal arts college in New York City. His book highlights his classroom strategies to challenge students to confront the interrelated forces of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia, often through teaching black, feminist literature. He also highlights how he worked to encourage students to come to a deeper understanding of the ways white supremacy has shaped American culture. To further illuminate his path to being a pro-feminist educator, Lemons also delves deeply into his own personal history of growing up in Arkansas and surviving domestic violence perpetrated by his father.

Lemons, whose doctorate is in English literature, is adept with language, and he plays with it throughout the book. Unfortunately, his many italics, parentheses, and quotation marks—while making a strong point about how institutionalized power inhabits the very language we speak—become a distraction from his otherwise clear prose. They threaten to become too cutesy for the depth with which he addresses his subjects.

Fortunately, Lemons and the students whose work he quotes provide powerful examples and testimony of the possibilities teaching across difference offers. He demonstrates how one can find strength in difference that resists a banal, depoliticized celebration of multiculturalism. He also powerfully makes the case that men can and must be feminist advocates and allies.

As Lemons writes in the conclusion, his book "promotes black feminist memoir-writing pedagogy that opposes all forms of domination, and it promotes the critical necessity of one’s movement from silence to voice about the effects of its dehumanization—personally and politically." Lemons bravery in confronting the violence social injustices wreak on society in his teaching and in his writing will serve his readers alike and equip them with knowledge a theoretical framework in which they can formulate their own ideas of how to heal from the wounds of white supremacy in their own lives.

Written by: Eleanor Whitney, April 10th 2009

male feminists

Men and Feminism

Black Male Outsider: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man